The Rural Utilities Service (RUS or the Agency), an agency of the Rural Development (RD) mission area of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), is announcing the acceptance of applications under the Solid Waste Management Grants (SWMGs) Program for Fiscal Year (FY) 2025, subject to the availability of funding.
Donor Name: Rural Utilities Service
State: All States
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 12/31/2024
Size of the Grant: More than $1 million
Grant Duration: 1 Year
Details:
The SWMGs Program is designed to assist communities by awarding grant funding to qualified organizations that provide technical assistance and training. The SWMGs Program funds can be used to help reduce or eliminate the pollution of water resources and improve planning and management of solid waste sites in rural areas. This includes addressing contamination caused by emerging contaminants, such as Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), disaster resilience, and other areas of priority.
Funding Information
Funding is anticipated to be approximately $4,000,000.
Grant Period
October 1, 2025, to September 30, 2026.
Uses of Funds
Evaluate current landfill conditions to determine threats to water resources; provide technical assistance and/or training to enhance operator skills in the operation and maintenance of active landfills; provide technical assistance and/or training to help communities reduce the solid waste stream; provide technical assistance and/or training for operators of landfills which are closed or will be closed in the near future with the development and implementation of closure plans, future land use plans, safety and maintenance planning, and closure scheduling within permit requirements. Grant funds may not be used to: recruit applications for the Agency’s water and waste loan and/or any loan and/or grant program; duplicate current services, or replace or substitute support normally provided by other means, such as those performed by an association’s consultant in developing a project, including feasibility, design, and cost estimates; fund political or lobbying activities; pay for capital assets; purchase real estate or vehicles, improve or renovate office space, or repair and maintain privately owned property; pay the costs for construction, improvement, rehabilitation, modification or operation and maintenance of water, wastewater, and solid waste disposal facilities and pay costs incurred prior to effective date of grants made under 7 CFR 1775.
Eligibility Criteria
Eligible applicants must meet the eligibility requirements of 7 CFR §1775.65, Eligibility.
- Entities eligible for grants must either be:
- Private nonprofit organizations with tax exempt status designated by the Internal Revenue Service. A nonprofit organization is defined as any corporation, trust, association, cooperative, or other organization that:
- Is operated primarily for scientific, education, service, charitable, or similar purposes in the public interest.
- Is not organized primarily for profit.
- Uses its net proceeds to maintain, improve, and/or expand its operations.
- Public bodies.
- Federally acknowledged or State-recognized Native American Tribe or group.
- Academic institutions.
- Private nonprofit organizations with tax exempt status designated by the Internal Revenue Service. A nonprofit organization is defined as any corporation, trust, association, cooperative, or other organization that:
- Entities must be legally established and located within a state as defined in § 1775.2.
- Organizations must be incorporated by December 31 of the year the application period occurs to be eligible for funds.
- Private businesses, Federal agencies, and individuals are ineligible for these grants.
- Applicants must also have the proven ability; background; experience, as evidenced by the organization’s satisfactory completion of project(s) similar to those proposed; legal authority; and actual capacity to provide technical assistance and/or training on a regional basis to associations as provided in § 1775.63. To meet the requirement of actual capacity, an applicant must either:
- Have the necessary resources to provide technical assistance and/or training to associations in rural areas through its staff, or
- Be assisted by an affiliate or member organization which has such background and experience and which agrees, in writing, that it will provide the assistance, or
- Contract with a nonaffiliated organization for not more than 49 percent of the grant to provide the proposed assistance.
For more information, visit Grants.gov.
